Hidden in plain sight

If you didn't get chance to visit Curzon Street Station between 21 and 29 June for Hidden Spaces, Associated Architects photography and media exhibition looking at the hidden spaces of Birmingham, http://birminghamcentral.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/hidden-birmingham.html, then you have a second chance to see it at the Library of Birmingham.

Hidden in plain sight, the exhibition is on the third floor and offers an abridged version of the Curzon Street Station exhibition.  The exhibition in Curzon Street Station offered a rare opportunity to go inside one of the Hidden Spaces itself with the station last open to the public in 2006. 



The surviving Grade I listed entrance building was designed by Philip Hardwick. Built in 1838, it is the world’s oldest surviving piece of monumental railway architecture.
Costing £28,000 to build, the architecture is Roman inspired, following Hardwick’s trip to Italy in 1818–19.
http://www.grapevinebirmingham.com/curzon-st-station-plays-host-to-birminghams-hidden-spaces-exhibition/


The photos below show the beautiful station building which with the planned High Speed 2 terminus sitting adjacent could once again return the station to a significant role in Birmingham's future.










Birmingham's Hidden Spaces has been a huge success and it would be great to see a second revelation perhaps offering insights into the secrets of the University of Birmingham's clock tower or the views from the BT tower.  What is for certain is the secret is out and it only goes to show how Birmingham is an amazing city.  


“Birmingham’s Hidden Spaces is a celebration of the city’s rich and diverse architectural heritage. It aims to show a different side to the places we may pass every day. Birmingham, like any great city, is full of layers of history and we want to peel them back to show how Birmingham has grown into the modern, vibrant city of today. An inevitability of the modern city is that the demands on its buildings will change and will be adapted or become redundant of their former purpose. Our aim is to capture and document these spaces as they exist today, whether in full use or abandoned, and share them for all to enjoy.”http://www.birminghamconservationtrust.org/2014/06/04/historic-curzon-street-station-to-host-hidden-spaces-exhibition/


The exhibition is near to the Library of Birmingham's Gallery space which is showcasing a retrospective of  Daniel Meadows' work, http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/event/Events/danielmeadows.  The contrast is stark, while Hidden Spaces shows the spaces and tells the story of the people who worked, lived and used them, Meadows looks at people and offers a snapshot of urban society between 1971 and 1987.  Meadows' photographs are compelling and he offers a moving comparison of the progress of time and of people's lives in the photographic omnibus revisited.





Hidden Spaces exhibition runs until 30 July.
Daniel Meadows exhibition runs until 17 August.


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